Top-seeded Qatari pair of Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan completed a hat-trick of titles this year by retaining their Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC) Aspire Qatar Master title yesterday.
In front of the home crowd, Younousse and Tijan defeated Australians Damien Shuman and Cole Durant 2-0 (21-16, 21-18) in the final at the Aspire Park.
Qatar Master is the third title for the fast-rising world No. 10 Qatari duo in 2018. They became Asia champions in Satun, Thailand, in September, after winning gold at the 18th Asian Games in Jakarta in August.
“We’re very happy with the victory. It was the last piece of the cake after winning the Asian Games and Asia Championship this year. We wanted to finish the year with this title in front of the home crowd,” said Younousse.
“I loved the crowd. This was the first time that such a big crowd had come to support us and beach volleyball,” he said.
On the other hand it was a disappointing end for the Aussies again. Last year, Younousse and Jefferson Santos Pereira had rallied to beat top Australian pair of Chris McHugh and Damien Schumann in three sets.
Yesterday, in the first set, both Durant and Schumann combined well to keep their team ahead. But after the mid-stage, Qatar regained the charge and went through. Schumann was, however, pleased with the progress the Australian teams made ahead of the Olympic qualifications next season.
“We’re a new team, so we were happy to make the final. We played well most of the game. We dropped a couple of points and then we gave away some points while catching up with the other team,” Schumann said.
Tijan was also happy with their win as he said: “This was how we’d had been planning to finish the tournament. It wasn’t an easy final, especially in the first set. The Australians are very tough but we’re happy that we finished as unbeaten in the continent through three events.”
Japan’s Yuya Gottsu and Ageba Ishijma, who lost to the eventual champions in the semi-finals 2-0 (21-16, 21-10) earlier in the day, finished third with a victory over the former Asian Games and Asia champions Kazakhstan’s Alexandr Dyachenko and Alexey Sidoranko 2-1 (17-21, 21-19, 15-12) in the hard-liner match.
“We’re very delighted to finish third. We’re playing together for the first time and it was a good result for us. I’m trying to get a chance to appear at another Olympic Games and it would be very nice if I can make it in the home Games. But the competition is very stiff with Qatar and Australia having tough teams. We’ll try our best and see if we can do it,” said Ishijima.
Prizes were given away by Aspire Zone Foundation chief marketing officer Mohamed Mubarak al-Kuwari, and Sports Corner general manager Barbaros Akyildiz, in the presence of Qatar Volleyball Association president Ali Ghanim al-Kuwari.
 
RESULTS
Final: Cherif Younousse/ Ahmed Tijan (Qatar) beat Cole Durant/ Damien Schumann (Australia) 21-16, 21-18 (30 Minutes)
Third place match: Yusuke Ishijima ‘Gottsu’/ Yuya Ageba (Japan) beat  Alexey Sidorenko/ Alexandr Dyachenko (Kazakhstan) 17-21, 21-19, 15-12 (46 minutes)
Semi-finals: Cherif Younousse/ Ahmed Tijan (Qatar) beat Yusuke Ishijima ‘Gottsu’/ Yuya Ageba (Japan) 21-16, 21-10 (34 minutes); Cole Durant/ Damien Schumann (Australia) beat Alexey Sidorenko/ Alexandr Dyachenko (Kazakhstan) 21-15, 21-17 (41 minutes)